Thesis 11>10
Latin
Illud quod apud Cabalistas dicitur <Hebrew>, illud est sine dubio quod ab Orpheo Pallas, a Zoroastre paterna mens, a Mercurio dei filius, a Pythagora sapientia, a Parmenide sphera intelligibilis, nominatur.
The Hebrew word is an OCR glyph run in Farmer, '<}N00)9>,,_', and 'illud est' is run together as 'illudest' (farmer1998:26593). The 1486 print leaves a blank space here (wirszubski1989:10155; busi2014:17911). Farmer, Howlett, Akopyan and Copenhaver print or supply Metatron (farmer1998:26650; howlett2021:6261; akopyan2021:3241; copenhaver2019:20399); Busi's edition supplies Hokmah (busi2014:24866). Akopyan's quotation reads 'materna mens', 'Dei filium' and 'sapiencia' (akopyan2021:3241); Wirszubski prints 'sphaera' (wirszubski1989:10153).
English
Whatever the Cabalists call [Metatron] is unquestionably the very thing named Pallas by Orpheus, the paternal mind by Zoroaster, the son of God by Mercury, wisdom by Pythagoras and the intelligible sphere by Parmenides. unverified draft
The bracketed name fills a blank in the 1486 print and is conjectural: Wirszubski proposed Metatron, while Francesco Giorgio (Zorzi) and the Busi and Ebgi volume read Hokmah, Wisdom (wirszubski1989:10247; busi2014:17918). 'Mercurius' is Hermes Trismegistus (wirszubski1989:10127).
Doctrine
The thesis equates one Kabbalistic entity with five figures of the ancient theology of the Gentiles, the prisca theologia: Orpheus's Pallas, Zoroaster's paternal mind, Hermes' son of God, Pythagoras's wisdom and Parmenides' intelligible sphere (farmer1998:26593; wirszubski1989:10127). Farmer holds that all these symbols correspond to what Pico elsewhere calls the intellectual or angelic nature (farmer1998:26629). The Hebrew word that would name the Kabbalistic entity is missing: the 1486 print has a blank space (wirszubski1989:10155). Metatron, if he is meant, is in Jewish angelology the angel into whom Enoch was transformed, called the angel of divinity, and identified by Abulafia with the Active Intellect and also called son (wirszubski1989:10232; wirszubski1989:10244). The alternative is Hokmah, Wisdom, the second sefirah counted from the top (busi2014:17918).
unverified draft
Context
Wirszubski reads the thesis beside Pico's Commento, written at about the same time, which warns that the Platonists' son of God is not the Christian Son, of one essence with the Father, but is to be compared with the first and noblest angel created by God (wirszubski1989:10136; wirszubski1989:10145). Pico names Metatron twice in writings of the same period: in the Commento, on Enoch transformed into Matatron, angel of divinity, and in the Oration, where the only known manuscript preserves the name that the printed editions obscure (wirszubski1989:10206; wirszubski1989:10235). Pico's thesis 19.2 makes the illuminating agent intellect of Themistius the same as Matatron in Cabala (farmer1998:14886). Copenhaver adds that Metatron was a Jewish name for the Agent Intellect, and quotes a text of Abulafia translated for Pico that calls the separated intellect Prince of the World, Mattatron and Henoch (copenhaver2019:15031; copenhaver2019:15033). The German study cited as kabbalah_paradigma, author unconfirmed, likewise has Metatron coincide for Pico with the active intellect, and points to Wirszubski's pages on the Latin Abulafia (kabbalah_paradigma:1473; kabbalah_paradigma:1455).
unverified draft
Reception
The thesis was not among those the commission censured; Blum notes that the Cabalistic theses according to Pico's own opinion went unchallenged (dougherty2008:2808). Francesco Giorgio, whose Declarationes on the Cabalistic theses are dated 1539, took the blank to be Hokmah, Wisdom, citing the Cabalists' 'Bechocmah omnia creasti' beside Psalm 104:24 (wirszubski1989:10157; wirszubski1989:10168; wirszubski1989:10216).
unverified draft
Historiography
Wirszubski grants that Giorgio's reading yields a fine specimen of Christian Kabbala but doubts it is Pico's (wirszubski1989:10159). His argument is that Pico's readings of John in 11>37, 11>39 and 11>42 make Wisdom, the second sefirah, Christ himself, so that equating Hokmah with Pallas would equate the pagan son of God with Christ, which the Commento forbids (wirszubski1989:10183; wirszubski1989:10192). Since the print shows only a blank, he declines to import that inconsistency and proposes Metatron, with the corollary that Pico used the figure to draw a line between Christianity and the ancient theology as well as to find correspondences (wirszubski1989:10198; wirszubski1989:10246). Farmer finds strong internal support for Metatron in 19.2 and accepts Wirszubski's external evidence (farmer1998:26630). In the Busi and Ebgi volume, the section signed 'R.E.' rejects Wirszubski's reading: Pico was too expert a theologian to make any sefirah stably equal to Christ, whose divine nature transcends the sefirot, so Pallas can be Hokmah without making her Christ; and Metatron has no function in Kabbalah corresponding to the goddess of wisdom (busi2014:17974; busi2014:17985; busi2014:17989). The same section judges Wirszubski a better scholar of Jewish Kabbalah than Christologist (busi2014:17972). Copenhaver notes the disagreement and prefers Metatron, because the Agent Intellect, identified with Metatron by name in 19.2, matches the other entities in the list better (copenhaver2019:23806; copenhaver2019:23809). The dispute turns on whether Pico's Christology allowed a sefirah to stand for Christ, so the blank space in the print has become a test of how far his Kabbala was Christian (wirszubski1989:10192; busi2014:17986).
unverified draft
Pico's sources
- Pico, Commento sopra una canzone d'amore, book 1, chap. 4: what Platonists, Hermes and Zoroaster call son of God, wisdom or mind is to be compared with the first and noblest angel created by God, not with the Christian Son: Pico's own near-contemporary gloss, the basis of Wirszubski's reading (wirszubski1989:10136)
- Abraham Abulafia (Latin by Flavius Mithridates): Metatron identified with the Agent Intellect and called by many names: external evidence for Metatron as the intellect named in the thesis (copenhaver2019:15033)
- Pico, thesis 19.2: the illuminating agent intellect in Themistius is what Matatron is in Cabala: internal support for Metatron (farmer1998:14886)
Quotations cited
- “His best-known name is Metatron” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:10206)
- “Contra Wirszubski, la corrispondenza tra l'innominato della tesi” — Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (busi2014:17989)
- “Wirszubski's choice of Metatron seems better” — Brian P. Copenhaver, Magic and the Dignity of Man: Pico della Mirandola and His Oration in Modern Memory (copenhaver2019:23809)
Not established
- The Hebrew word Pico intended for the blank; no witness supplies it.
- Whether Pico or the printer meant the blank to be filled by hand; the Busi and Ebgi volume raises this only as a question.
- Farmer's discussion of the intellectual nature at his pp. 69-70, cited in his note, was not read for this entry.
Discussed in
- Ovanes Akopyan, Debating the Stars in the Italian Renaissance: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem and Its Reception (2021)
- Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (2014)
- Sophia Howlett, Re-evaluating Pico: Aristotelianism, Kabbalism, and Platonism in the Philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (2021)
- (author to be confirmed from front matter), Erkenntnistheorie und christliche Kabbalah: Das Paradigma des Pico della Mirandola (n.d.)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 5>4 Qui sciuerit rationem causae praesupponere rationem perfecti, intelliget iuxta Platonicam doctrinam quare dixerit Pherecides non prius Iouem